Apple MB680Z/A MobileMe family pack

MobileMe: sync your digital life

Do you find it annoying to read an email at home, go out to a ball game, check your iPod touch, and see the same message marked as unread? Are you tired of marking the same event on four different calendars? Constantly forgetting who you have in each of several digital contact books? Is it irritating to carry around flash drives every time you need a file larger than a few kilobytes moved from one place to another? Are you sick of going through a multi-step conversion process in transferring data between your Mac, PC, and iPhone? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then MobileMe is perfect for you. MobileMe is a revolutionary new service from Apple to totally sync your digital life across all your platforms. You won't believe how much time and effort you'll save by having your calendars, contact lists, mail accounts, media, and miscellaneous files all synced perfectly between your Mac, PC, iPod touch, and iPhone in a nearly effortless process. All in all, MobileMe is the perfect way to get your e-life organized. With the Family Pack, though, you can keep your whole household on the same page! The Family pack includes one standard single account, plus four additional custom e-mail accounts, each with a separate iDisk and 5GB storage to keep all of your loved ones in the know.

A polished diplomat

Remember that guy or girl back in school you knew that everyone liked? The one that just got along with everybody? That's what MobileMe is like. Rather than get caught up in the "This is your application, this is mine, and I won't deal with the other guy" politics in computer programming, MobileMe tears down platform walls to get along with anybody and everybody, so keeping your digital world organized is as simple as updating your preferences on one device. Think we're joking when we say it plays well with others? MobileMe works with Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard, Windows XP or Vista, and with a great variety of applications on each OS, as well as seamlessly integrating iPhone/iPod touch's applications. But not only does it function with these applications, and sync with multiple various programs, it uses me.com to allow for the use of rich web applications or file transfers on any of its supported platforms.

Check your mailbox

Your MobileMe membership (say that five times fast) brings with it a customizable email address. Your MobileMe email account can be totally synced so that your email looks exactly the same whether you're in Windows Mail, Mail on your MacBook Pro, or Mail on your iPod touch. Read messages in one account are read in another, your folders are set up the same, and it will all still run in its native application. Or you can choose to use the Mail application on me.com just as easily. On the road? Not a problem. Your MobileMe mail, all carefully filtered to prevent spam or viruses, will be delivered to your iPhone or iPod touch in mere seconds, and checking email isn't a four step, three-minute process, either. Just look at your handheld, and a small picture will tell you when you've got new mail. Much less annoying than that "You've got mail" guy telling you every few minutes.

The world's lightest, largest phone book

You probably have a different digital contact book on your desktop, laptop, iPhone, and work computer, right? That's too bad. Because with a MobileMe account, you could save yourself the time and confusion of entering the same contacts multiple places. With a MobileMe Contacts list, you have one list of contacts that stays with you whether you're on your iMac, iPod touch, or VAIO at work. Change one and the others will update amazingly quickly (within 15 minutes, unless you're using Mac OS X Tiger, which is within an hour). Or, you can even access and update your full contacts list on me.com. This way you can carry your entire library of people you know with you. Need the number for your five o'clock meeting while on the way there? Just pull over, pull out your iPhone, and in seconds you could let her know you'll be five minutes late. Forgot how to get to your client's office? With MobileMe contacts, you can quickly pull up a Google Map to the address, even on the road. What a lifesaver! And the coolest part is that your iPhone or iPod touch will sync wirelessly, no cords or docks needed!

Being busy's never been so fun

Important business meeting at 3:30, soccer practice at 5:00, and a PTA meeting at 7:00. If hearing that makes you cringe, you need to try MobileMe. With MobileMe's calendar functionality, having lots to do is fun! You don't have to fret missing a meeting because you forgot to add it to your work calendar. You can manage you everything in all your schedules in minutes with Apple's convenient functionality. Add an event to one of your calendars, whether it's iCal, Outlook, or Calendar, and the others will be updated. iPhones and iPod touches update wirelessly, within 15 minutes from when you change your computer's calendar (except with Mac OS X Tiger, which is within the hour), and when you update on your portable solution, it wirelessly syncs your other computers, no docks or cables needed. Or, use the expansive online Calendar at me.com. With MobileMe Calendar, you can manage your digital schedules effortlessly to ensure you're always at the right place at the right time.

Loosen the tie

MobileMe is proud to say that it isn't all business. What would an Apple product be without some creative, pre-programmed fun? Sure, MobileMe is a great solution for the corporate-bound desk jockey, but that doesn't mean it's a Monday-through-Friday service. The MobileMe Gallery is a flawless media-sharing application. Gallery allows you to upload and manage photos from multiple locations including your iPhone, iPhoto '08, Aperture 2, or even iMovie (yes, you can even add movies). You can also handle photos through me.com, or even have your friends add that photo of theirs you liked so much to your Gallery through email or web. But both of you know you're the better photographer, so your friend can download print-quality copies of their favorite photos you've taken. Your public Gallery folders can be viewed by your family and friends on a web browser or AppleTV. And since Gallery has smart scaling technology, your pictures will always be optimized for the screen they're being viewed on. Still think MobileMe is 40-hour-per-week tool?

Abstract memory

Rather than carry around pocketfuls of zip drives when you need to transfer data, just use iDisk, part of MobileMe. This intuitive file sharing application lets you store up to 20GB of data in a "cloud" you can access on any of computers with a web browser, iPhone, or iPod touch through me.com. You can keep your digital diary private, but make your blogs public, so anyone can access them. This way, you can download your files anywhere without the hassle of email or the expense of carrying around lots of flash drives. If you have a Mac, you can even access iDisk in Finder, and coming soon, you'll be able to mail links to downloads of files to large to fit in emails. Isn't that easier than 20 twelve-bucks-a-pop 1GB thumb drives?

Mac Attack!

When using MobileMe with one or more Mac computers, you'll get plenty more features than just the ones mentioned above. For example, using iWeb with MobileMe, you also create awesome web pages to be hosted at your own personal domain. It's just that easy! Or you can sync your Safari bookmarks, or Dashboard settings. Maybe you'd rather have your iChats encrypted for added security. MobileMe does that, too. Uh-oh! Forgot to upload that report you were working on to your iDisk? Don't sweat it — with MobileMe, you can remotely access your other Mac to retrieve your important files. These are just some of the great features you'll get if using MobileMe with your Mac computers. But what else would you expect from an innovator like Apple?

Your Windows opportunities

Don't think that MobileMe is a "designed for Mac, works on PC" product, though. Products with the Apple logo weren't the only ones given special attention in the design of MobileMe. For example, me.com brings you Mac convenience and functionality on your Windows computer over the web. But hey, if you're a diehard Windows dude, that's no problem; MobileMe works with the same Windows and Microsoft applications you do already. And it shares the same info whether you're working in Windows or Mac, or even on an Apple mobile solution. You can add iDisk so you can use directly from your desktop to simplify things if you'd like. And speaking of simple, to install, all you need to do is download the free latest version of iTunes, and there will be a MobileMe tab in your control panel. After all, why should Apple make PCs an enemy when they can work together so well?

i can explain . . .

MobileMe works seamlessly with iPhone or iPod touch in such a simple way, it's amazing. Changes made either on your computer or your iPhone/iPod touch are automatically synced, wirelessly. That's right, no cables, no dock, and it's surprisingly quick! No new apps are required, MobileMe adapts information for the iPhone/iPod touch programs you already use. New e-mails are sent to your handheld in mere seconds, a small icon lets you know at a glance if you've got new mail, so you don't have to spend minutes to check your mail. Finally, you can upload your iPhone pictures directly to your MobileMe gallery for supreme convenience.